I’ve done five star predictions only once before but I liked it so much that I’m doing it again. It’s a great way to see not only how well I know myself and my reading tastes but also to check if those book blurbs and publisher promotions raise the right expectations.
Here are the books I intend to read this year and which I think will receive the highest rating. On my blog, that would be somewhere between 8 and 10 stars which translates to 5 stars on Goodreads. I am curious to see if my predictions hold up and if I even manage to read all the books on this list.
Fonda Lee – Jade Legacy
I’m starting with an easy one, the last part on the Green Bone Saga trilogy. I promised, this year, I’d be more adventureous with my predictions but you have to give me this one. I’m sure I will love it as much as the first two books in the series and I’m so excited to get back into the world of magical jade, feuding mafia clans, and great characters.
I’m very, very sure I will love this book and I trust Fonda Lee will deliver an amazing ending to this saga.
Hannah F. Whitten – For the Wolf
Here’s me being daring. This book sounds just up my alley, but you never really know before you read it. It has Red Riding Hood vibes, is recommended to fans of Uprooted and The Winternight Trilogy and those are all things I adore.
I have never read anything by Whitten before so the writing style and plot could still mess this one up. But I am optimistic and hoping to discover a new favorite.
Everina Maxwell – Winter’s Orbit
Another one that could go either way. Everything about this book sounds great, especially the “there’s only one bed” trope that keeps being mentioned on social media. An M/M romance in space that’s like if Anciallry Justice met Red White and Royal Blue. I can’t quite imagine what this will be like and it’s probably a book I either end up loving or hating, but I want to stay positive and hope for a five star read.
I also really like both the US and UK cover (this one is the UK version) and it gives me wonderful space opera vibes. Let’s make sure I read this when I’m in the right mood and then nothing can go wrong, right?
Vonda M. McIntyre – Dreamsnake
So far, these are all 2021 publications, but I don’t want to neglect my backlist TBR. Dreamsnake has been to-be-read for ages and while I’ve definitely encountered some less than great Hugo winners from the past, I think this one will work for me.
A dangerous quest in a far-future post-apocalyptic landscape with magical healing snakes? It sounds wild and I have never read anything by McIntyre before but here’s to hoping I didn’t completely misjudge my own reading tastes.
Catherynne M. Valente – The Past is Red
Oh look, it’s a new novella by my favorite author. I wonder if I’ll like it.
Okay, joking aside, even if this wasn’t written by Cat Valente, the premise sounds so good and the cover is so stunning that I am fully expecting this to get five stars. I mean, it’s set in a place called garbagetown, in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by climate change. That’s all I need to know really. And because this is a novella (so, probably short) and another safe choice, I’ll add a sixth book to my predictions list.
Alechia Dow – The Sound of Stars
Okay, this is tagged as “a girl who risks her life for books” so what could possibly go wrong? There’s also an alien who loves forbidden pop music. That sounds so damn cute I want to read it right now!
Although the word this book is set in does not sound inviting – alien invasion, forbidden books and music – I think the premise has so much potential. Again, this is an author I don’t know yet but if it’s well written and tells a compelling story, I don’t see why this shouldn’t get five stars.
The fact that the cover is gorgeous also doesn’t hurt.
I did go for two easy choices but, just so you know I am restraining myself a little, I left off the next Murderbot novella, Rivers Solomon’s new novel Sorrowland, and the next instalment in Arkady Martine’s series – all of which I expect to love to pieces.
I’ll do my very best to read and review these books in 2021 so we can check back at the end of the year.
This was a more pleasant type of book hangover. I absolutely adore the world Nnedi Okorafor has created and I just want to spend more time in it! The only reason I didn’t have a book hangover after the first book, 
It took me a while to find my way into this book. Stiefvater isn’t known for flowery language but nobody can create a three-dimensional character with just a few lines the way that she can. In this case, she has created not just a cast of wonderful characters but an entire island filled with tradition and myth and life. Once I had allowed myself to get fully immersed in this world I never wanted to come up for air again. The ending was a thing of singular perfection. I cried and wanted to start reading the entire book again.
This entire trilogy swept me off my feet, but the first book gave me a particularly tough book hangover. It was like the author had looked into my brain, picked all the things I like about stories and stuck them into this novel. Russian fairy tales, a brilliant heroine, lots of conflict, a compelling wintery setting and fantastic writing. How could I not love this? The problem was that I read this shortly after it came out, so I had to wait for the next book. In the meantime, all I could do was yearn for another novel that combined all of my favorite things as beautifully as this one did.
Nobody was more surprised than me when this little book completely destroyed me. It’s a reversed Little Mermaid retelling – where the human scientist wants to become a mermaid – that packs way more punch than you’d expect. I’m so glad I bought the physical book from Book Smugglers Publishing because this is a story I want on my shelf. As it’s a retelling, you do know what’s coming ahead of time, but nothing could prepare me for the emotional punch. I was devastated, I was shocked, and I was very impressed. Here it was not so much that I didn’t think anything could live up to this book again, but more a general feeling of depression because of the story.
You can always tell when writers are also poets because even when they write prose, there is something special about the way they use language. C. S. E. Cooney is one such poet and in this collection, she wrote nothing but stories that gave me hangovers. Seriously, after every single one I thought to myself “This was the best one yet, nothing can be better” and then I repeated this until I reached the end of the book. One story in particular hit me right in the heartstrings (the Rumpelstiltskin retelling) but all the others were gorgeous as well. I have since tried to buy everything I could find by this author and I hope we’ll get to read much more by her.
As a three-years-in-a-row Hugo winner for this particular trilogy, I probably don’t have to tell you how great this book is. I had read Jemisin’s work before and was already a big fan, but when The Fifth Season came out, it was clear that she had reached a whole new level of excellence. All the things that are important to me (characters, language, world-building, plot) exceeded my expectations, and then there is one of the best most surprising twists that I have ever come across. This deserves every award it has won and it still makes me doubt I’ll ever read anything quite as good again.
Here’s another short story writer that completely blew me away. Slatter’s short stories are interconnected (and also connect to her other collection Sourdough) so this didn’t feel so much like a story collection but rather like a mosaic novel. Fitting the pieces together, seeing how each story fits within the context of the others, was almost as much fun as the stories themselves. Slatter writes fantastic characters, putting women front and center. Her writing has a fairy tale vibe, all while doing completely her own thing.
There had to be a Valente novel on this list, didn’t there? It’s not surprising that my favorite writer also gave me one of my biggest book hangovers. In this retro futuristic novel, she combines so many styles and voices that at first I was most impressed with the writing. But then she also created this heartbreaking characters and tells an extraordinary story that I didn’t know what to love more. Reading this was truly an experience. This is a book you fall into like a dream and waking up feels just as painful as leaving loved ones behind.
This book has been on my TBR ever since it was published but the sheer size of it and the reviews I’ve read always made me put off reading it. I don’t expect the language to be easy, I think the plot structure will be rather complex, and I think it will take me a while to finish this book. But those are all things that I love. If the characters are great as well, I’m pretty sure this will end up as a new favorite.
is a book I specifically saved up so I can read it when I most need something great. I adored everything about the first book in the duology and I have no doubt that I will love this one as well. Taylor’s prose is just beautiful, I already love the characters, and even if the plot doesn’t end up the way I want it to, I don’t think this would drag my rating down a lot. So yeah, this is the one book on this list I’m most certain will end up a five star read.
This being the third book in a trilogy where I loved both the first and the second novel, it’s a pretty safe bet that I will love this too. Mishell Baker’s Arcadia Project series has so much going for it on the surface, but it was the writing style that really drew me in. A great premise is one thing (many books have excellent premises) but when the execution works so damn well that I just can’t put the novel down, then the author did something right. It also helps that I love the flawed, multi-layered protagonist and that she’s definitely not your average Urban Fantasy heroine.
. I think I will love this book, based on everything I’ve heard about it. But I also believe it has the potential to go completely the other way. Of course I’m hoping that I will end up loving it but that’s how it is with books – you never know. Something everyone else seems to like may end up being a book I hate. But I have a good feeling about this one and can’t wait to find out if I’m right.
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